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Two men chosen to lead Israel's top intelligence agencies are sparking controversy among Israelis. Both have close ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Israel's version of the FBI, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, has a new chief, former military Major General David Zini. Some former security officials accuse Zini of prioritizing loyalty to Netanyahu.
YONI SHIMSHONI: He has already shown that he is willing to comply with requests of the prime minister that are basically out of line.
ESTRIN: Yoni Shimshoni is with Commanders for Israel's Security, a group of retired security officials who criticize Netanyahu's policies. He's referring to widespread reports in the Israeli press that after Netanyahu appointed the new Shin Bet chief, the intelligence agency intervened to help Netanyahu avoid attending his own corruption trial by warning the judges he could come under enemy attack while in court. The previous Shin Bet chief said Netanyahu asked him to intervene in the same way. And when he refused, Netanyahu fired him and replaced him with Zini.
SHIMSHONI: The Shin Bet never had a political agenda, a partisan political agenda. Now the head of the organization has one and also has a world view. You know, he's a right-wing ideologue.
ESTRIN: Under the new chief's watch, the Shin Bet changed its long-standing position and supported the death penalty for Palestinians convicted on terrorism offenses, says Noa Sattath, head of Israel's leading civil rights advocacy group, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
NOA SATTATH: The Shin Bet, the Israeli secret police, have continuously maintained over decades that death penalty will reduce the security of Israelis rather than enhance it, that it would incite more violence.
ESTRIN: Sattath says that changed after Netanyahu appointed the new head of the Shin Bet intelligence service.
SATTATH: Netanyahu was able to replace the head of the Shin Bet from somebody who is part of the professional staff to a loyalist, and that has caused the change in the position of the Shin Bet. Without that change, the law wouldn't have passed, even though it was discussed many, many times.
ESTRIN: Another controversy surrounds the man chosen last month to lead the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency. Netanyahu named his military adviser, Roman Gofman. His appointment is being challenged in Israel's Supreme Court because of a chapter from his past. He allegedly recruited a young Israeli blogger to publish classified information for a secret influence campaign and didn't admit to running him as an agent as Israeli authorities held the blogger for more than a year on espionage charges. Doron Hadar is a former Israeli security official.
DORON HADAR: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: "Roman Gofman's entry to the Mossad will lead to a wave of departures of senior officials," he says, "due to lack of trust and concerns about what could happen in the organization when he takes over."
OPHIR FALK: That criticism is absurd.
ESTRIN: Foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, Ophir Falk, has worked with both of the men tapped to be the intelligence chiefs.
FALK: I can attest to the fact that they are very, very capable officials.
ESTRIN: The Shin Bet chief's appointment was also challenged in court, unsuccessfully, by more than a hundred former Shin Bet agency officials, including former legal adviser Adi Indar.
ADI INDAR: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: "What is concerning here," Indar says, "is that the prime minister has appointed two officials to lead the most sensitive agencies in Israel, and the main consideration," he says, "is personal loyalty." Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
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